This disclosure relates to a magnetic coupling unit having a magnetic device such as a coil, and to a magnetic coupling system including a plurality of such magnetic coupling units.
In recent years, a feed system (a non-contact feed system, a wireless charging system) performing non-contact power supply (power transmission) to CE devices (consumer electronics devices) such as mobile phones and mobile music players has attracted attention. Accordingly, charging is allowed to be started by not inserting (connecting) a connector of a power supply such as an AC adapter into a unit but placing an electronic unit (a secondary-side unit) on a charging tray (a primary-side unit). In other words, terminal connection between the electronic unit and the charging tray is not necessary.
As a method of performing non-contact power supply in such a way, an electromagnetic induction method (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-93180) is well known. In addition, a non-contact feed system using a so-called magnetic resonance method which uses magnetic resonance phenomenon has attracted attention. In the non-contact feed system using the magnetic resonance method, power transmission is achievable with a distance larger than that in the electromagnetic induction method because of a principle of the magnetic resonance phenomenon. In addition, transmission efficiency (feeding efficiency) is less likely to be degraded even if an axial alignment is not enough. Incidentally, in the magnetic resonance method and in the electromagnetic induction method, the non-contact feed system uses the magnetic coupling between a feed source (a power transmission coil) and a feed destination (a power reception coil).
On the other hand, similarly to the non-contact feed system, there are a large number of systems (magnetic coupling systems) performing a predetermined operation with use of magnetic coupling between coils (magnetic devices). Examples of such systems include a wireless communication system performing local wireless communication between an electronic unit and a non-contact integrated circuit (IC) card (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-178713) and a transformation system converting a voltage value of an AC power into a different voltage value. In addition, examples of such systems further include an induction heating system heating a metal product (for example, a metal pot) without contact with use of magnetic coupling between a coil and the metal product (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-267466).